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{
    "id": 246176,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/246176/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 243,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Dr. Kibunguchy",
    "speaker_title": "The Assistant Minister for Health",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 294,
        "legal_name": "Enoch Wamalwa Kibunguchy",
        "slug": "enoch-kibunguchy"
    },
    "content": " Mr. Temporary Deputy Speaker, Sir, for the benefit of the hon. Members who keep on asking about new health facilities, I would like to say this: We still use the District Development Committee (DDC). I urge all hon. Members, who have new health facilities, to give information about them, through the DDCs, to our Medical Officers of Health, the Provincial Medical Officers and the Director of Medical Services. I can assure you that if that is done, we will register all new health facilities. We will then send to them health workers and equipment. The other thing that I would like to say concerns the Ministry of Health is the issue of grants. We have asked the Ministry of Finance to give us permission to give grants directly to hospitals and health facilities in the way money is sent to primary schools in this country. We feel that if money is sent directly to health facilities, it will do much more than what is happening now. This is because when we send money to the Medical Officers of Health in the districts it is subjected to the tendering process. We send, say, Kshs180,000 to dispensaries and Kshs140,000 to health centres in the country, but a lot of that money does not do much, because of the tendering process. We know how the tendering process and the Ministry of Roads and Public Works regulations work. The other issue I would like to talk about is the problem that the country has just gone through. I am glad that we have put some money aside to deal with drought and hunger that have ravaged this country. It is painful to see that 43 years after Independence we go, with bawl in hand, to ask for assistance from outside this country. We must stand tall and say enough is enough. We should be able to deal with problems in arid and semi arid areas. We should deal with droughts that keep on recurring in the country. We must have a plan to deal with the problems of drought, starvation and hunger in this country. I have been on record on many occasions saying that the Ministry of Agriculture has June 22, 2006 PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 1587 abdicated its role by allowing middlemen to buy maize. Middlemen buy maize when it is not dry enough. As a result of this it develops aflotoxin. It is then sold to our brothers and sisters in ASAL areas, who fall ill after eating such maize. I have said that there are certain strategic sectors in this country that should not be left in the hands of middlemen. Finally, I would like to say the following: As we give money to the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, I would like to urge that Ministry to quickly operationalise the Forest Act. We passed this law in this House, but after we gave it to the Ministry nothing has been done about it. I say this because there are certain parts of the Act that directly impact on my people of Lugari. For a very long time we have practised the shamba system in Lugari, and this went a long way in alleviating poverty and unemployment. Sometime back the Government said that we were not to practise the shamba system at all. People were then thrown out of forests. It is a long time since we passed the Forest Act. The Act empowers communities to partner with the Government and the Forest Department to plant more trees. I do not know why this Act has not been operationalised up to this time. I hope that the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources is not going to ask me to visit his office before he operationalises this Act. He should operationalise it, so that communities can partner with the Forest Department to plant trees. The Department should not spend money on endless seminars lamenting about the diminishing forest cover in this country. There is a very cheap way of planting trees in this country. This is by involving the communities in planting them. With those few remarks, I beg to support."
}